The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-11-24


every caprice and stuff him with con-
fectionery Before you ara aware of it
that boy of ten years will so down
the street, a cigar in his mouth and ready on
any corner with his comrades to compare
pugilistic attainments, The parent who al
lows the child TO grow up without ever hav--
Ing learned the great duty of obedience and
submission has prepared a cup of burning
gall for his own lips and appalling destruc-
ton for his descendant Remember Eli and
his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
A second error prevalent in the training OF
children is the laying out of theory and fol-
lowing il without arranging 1t TO varieties OF
disposition. In every family you will find
striking differences Of temperament. This
rhild is too timid, and that too boil; this
too mserly, and that too wasteful; this too
Inactive and that too boisterous, Now, the
farmer who should plant corn and wheat and
turnips in just the Same way, then
put them through one hopper and grind them
IN the same mill, would not be so much of a
fool as tho parents who should attempt to
discipline and educate alltheir children in tho
same manner Ii needs skillful hand to adj
Just these checks and balances, The rigidity
of government which is necessary to hold in
this impetuous nature would utterly crush
that flexible disposition, while the gentle
'eproof that would suffice for the latter would,
when used ON the former, be like attempting to
hold champing Bucephalus with reni of gos-
samer. God gives us in the disposition of each
child hint as to how we ought to train him,
and, as God in the mental structures of our
children indicates what mode of training is
the best, He indicates in their dispoS ton
ther future occupation. Do not write down
that child as dull because it may not be as
brilliant as your other children, or as these
of your neighbor. Some OF the mightieSt
men and women of the centuries had stupid
childhood. Thomas A1uinas was called at
school 'the dumb OK but afterward demon
strated his sanctifel genius and was called
"the angel of the schools and "ths eagle of
Brittany Kindness and patience with a
child will conquer almost anything, and they
are virtues so Christianlike that they are in
spring to look at John Wesley's kiss Of q
child on the pulpit stairs turned Matthias
Joyce from proAigate into a flaming evan
GEL
The third error prevalent in the training
of children is the ones!ded development of
either the physical, intellectual or moral ma
ture at the expense of the others. Those, for
instance, greatly mistake who, while they are
faithful in the intellectual and moral culture
of children, forget the physical. The bright
eyes half quenched by night study, the
cramped chest that comes from too much
bending over school DESKS the weak side result
ing from Submarines of habit, pale checks
and the gaunt bodies of mutitudes of chill
dred attest that physical development does
not always go along with intellectual and
moral. How do you suppose all those treas
ures Of knowledge the child gets, will look
in shattered casket! And how much will you
give for the wealthiest cargo when it is put
into leaky ship! How can that bright,
sharp blade of child's attachments be
welded without any hands! What are
brains worth without shoulders to carry
them! What is a child with magnificent
mind but an exhausted body? Better that a
young man of twenty-one so forth into the
world without knowing A from if he have
health of body and energy to push his way
through the world. than at twenty-one to
enter upon active life, his head stuffed with
Socrates and Herodotus. and Bacon, and La
Place, but no physical force to sustain him
in the shock of earthly conflicts. From this
come out in life with q genius that could
have piled Ossa upon Pclion and
mounted upon them to scale the
heavens, and vet have laid down
painting with physical exhaustion be-
fore a mole-hill. They who might have
thrilled senates and marshaled armies and
startled the world with the shock of their
scientific batteries, have passed their lives in
picking up prescriptions for indigestion.
lney OWlleC all Inc lHiillttDoLlo Vi =,
but could not get out of thor rocking chair
to use them. George Washington in early life
was poor speller, and spelled hat h-a-double- t
and ream Of paper he spelled ''rheam," but
he knew enough to spell out the independence
of this country from foreign oppression. The
knowledge of the schools is important, but
there are other things quite as important.
Just as great is the wrong done when the
mind is cultivated and the heart neglected.
oe Ia.y cd ~
scholarly attachments Cur schools and
seminaries are ever growing in efficiency,
and the students are conducted through all
the realms of philosophy and art, and
language, and mathematics The most
hereditary obtuseness gives wey before
the onslaught Of adroit instructors.
But there is q development OF
infinite importance which mathematics and
the dead languages cannot affect. The more
mental power the more capacity for evil UNI
less coupled with religious restraint. You
discover what terrible power for evil unsanc
tilted genius possesses when you see Scaligel
with his scathing denunciations assaulting the
best men of his time, and Blount
and Spinoza and Bolingbroke lead
ing their hosts of followers into
the all-consuming fires of skepticism and in
fidelity. Whether knowledge is mighty
good or an unmitigated evil depends entirely
upon which course it takes. The river roll
ing on between round banks makes all the
valley laugh with golden wheat and ranE
grass, and catching hold the wheel of mill
and factory, whirls it with great industries.
But, breaking away from restraints
and dashing over banks in red wrath
it washes away harvests from theiI
mornings and makes the valleys Shrek with
the catastrophe. Fire in the furnace heats
the house or drives the steamer; but, uncon
al, IL Eel
before it, and i'll few hours half city vii
lie in black ruin, walls and towers and
churches and monuments. You must accom-
pany the education Of the intellect with the
education Of the heart, or you are rousiug
up within your child an energy which will be
blasting and terrific Better wicked Ounce
than wicked philosopher.
The fourth error often committed in the
training of children is the suppression of child
ish sportfulness. The most triumphant death
OF any child that | ever saw was that of SEQ
vile Haynes McCollum. A few days before
that he was ct my house in Syracuse, and he
ran like deer and his halloo made the woods
echo. You could hear him coming block off,
sofull was he of romp and laughter and whistle
Don'tput religion on your child as straight
JacKeJ. Parents after having Tor a goot
many years been jostled about in the rough
world often lose their vivacity, and are as
tonished to see how their children can act sc
thoughtlessly of the earnest world about
them. That is a cruel parent who quenches
any of the light in a child's soul. Instead Of
arresting the sportfulness, go forth
and help him trundle the hoop, ant
fly the. kite, and build the snow castle
Those shoulders are too little t.
carry a burden, that brow is too young K
be wrinkled, those feet are too sprightly K
go along at funeral pace. God bless theil
young hearts! Now is the time for them tx
be sporJful. Let them romp and sing ant
laugh, and go with rush ant
hurrah. In this way they gathe
up a surplus of energy for future
life. For the child that walks around will
| a scowl, dragging his feet as though the,
were weights and sitting down by the hou
in moping and grumbling, prophecy lif
of utter inanition and discomfort Soone
hush the robbins in the air till they are silen
as a bat, and lecture the frisliing lambs OF
the hillside until they walk like old sheep
rather than put exhilarant childhood in tn
| stocks.
The fifth error in the training of CHILDHOOD
is the postponement of its moral culture unit
too late. Multitudes of children, because o
their precocity have been urged into depth
| of study where they ought not to go, AM
their intellects have been overburjened an;
overstrained and battered to pieces agains
Latin grammars and algebras and comm,
| forth into practical life they will hardly ris
to mediocrity, and there is now stuflin,